Cognitive Dissonance - Episode 625: Snark Park

Episode Date: April 18, 2022

Show Notes     This resource is good for locating clinics in one's area. It also helps avoid Crisis Pregnancy Centers (Religious Groups disguised as a Clinic): This Group helps those that need help paying for their abortion. This organization is based in Texas, but they connect teens with legal aid groups all over the country. They help teens that need access to abortion get a Judicial Bypass: Access To abortion pills when one can't reach a clinic: Prochoice Options Hotline. This group helps fund abortion and does diaper drives:

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We bring critical thinking, skepticism, and irreverence to any topic that makes the news, makes it big, or makes us mad. It's skeptical, It's political. And there is no welcome mat. This is episode 625 of Cognitive Dissonance, I think. Yeah, 625. Yeah, I didn't call it up. That's all right. I'm just, I'm winging it, buddy. I think that's what-

I'm winging it. That's what's on the notes. I'm not saying that's right. I'm not saying it's right. I made the notes. I'm not saying that's right. I'm just saying that's what's on the notes. I have a story to tell you. All'm not saying it's right. I made the notes. I'm not saying that's right. I'm just saying that's what's on the notes. I have a story to tell you.

Alright, I want to hear your story. Haley and I, the other day, a couple of weeks ago, I meant to tell you when it happened. It's just another typical Tom story. A couple of weeks ago, Haley and I had a meeting. We're thinking about having a house built. We had a meeting with the guy

that was showing you this stuff. We're in this room. We're thinking about having a house built. We had a meeting with the guy that, you know, is showing you this stuff. And so we're in this room. We're talking some stuff through and it's time to go. And it's this like model house, right? So you're in this model house and they've got an office within the model house that you meet and you talk about stuff and you decide whether you're going to do something.

And so we're talking to this guy and, you know, it's time to go. And I walk up to the door of this brand new house, right? It's brand new. It's their model house. Sure. No,

it's our model. Yeah. And I reached out and I grabbed the handle and I, it's one of those like latchy handles. It's not a twist. It's a latchy. Yeah. Yeah.

You know, and I reach out, I grabbed the handle and I turn the handle or I push it down and I hear this like grinding, cracking sound. Huh? That's weird. And i turned to him and then and then the handle doesn't you know that sure it doesn't work now now you broke it it's fucking broken he's like that's the door outside and it was the door outside but he had locked the door and he didn't so you say anything so you broke a locked door well a little yes i did i broke i didn't go through a different i had to go through a different door? Well, a little. Yes, I did. I broke. I had to go through a different door.

You broke the fuck out of it. But it's like, why would you lock me in this room? And then I just thought it was stunker. So I don't know. I swear I didn't like push it that hard. You didn't do it that hard. I didn't. I didn't.

But I did break his house. Like I did. So this was like three. Did he bill you? He did not. He did not bill me, but it was embarrassing. So I was like. For him. Stupid lame door. I was like three so did he bill you he did not he did not bill me but it was embarrassing so i was like for him i'm like lame door i was like i did i was joking i was like i was like well you gotta fucking build better doors than this you know like gosh this lock won't even do

though don't buy the house but once they build them just walk into everybody just break in the door break into everybody's house because you know they can't keep you out. Well, actually, that's the thing. No one can stop you from walking into their house. You are like, you're like the fucking, you're like the sheriff or whatever. You just walk in

wherever you want. You just want, no, you're like the, you're like Robin Hood. Well, the thing is. Except for just keep everything. Don't give it to anybody. Well, it was the opposite actually

because it, like I couldn't open the door. I just broke his door. It's still fucking shut and locked. Oh, I see. So it's still shut and locked. You're just standing there with like a piece in your hand. I just broke his door. It's still fucking shut and locked. Oh, I see. So it's still shut and locked. You're just standing there with like a piece in your hand? I just broke it.

And so then it was broken. So then I actually had to met with him again yesterday and walked in. The first thing I'm like, all right, so what's the door handle situation? And he's like, we had it fixed after the last time you were here. Did you upgrade it?

Look, you want to get a tier four door. I can't go to this fucking tier one shit. You want the tier one door because I can literally break in a drop of a hat. It's like I'm in a gingerbread house over here. What is the door handle made of gumdrops? What's happening? That's amazing. It was so fucking hilarious.

It reminds me of the story of you when you were at's happening? That's amazing. It was so fucking hilarious and embarrassing. It reminds me of the story of you when you were at, we were downtown and the door was acting up and you had to like, I pressed the button and it let me in,

but it kind of dragged a little. And so I wiggled it and it started to go and I went upstairs and then I came, you came upstairs and didn't say anything. And then we were leaving,

the door was wide open. I'm like, oh, somebody broke in. And you're like, I might've done that't say anything. And then we were leaving, the door was wide open. I'm like, oh, somebody broke in. And you're like, I might've done that. You just walked in. It was like, and you just pulled it. The door was stuck. You essentially broke it.

Yeah, I did break it. You did break it. You 100% broke it. Do you remember when we were in Grand Rapids in Michigan and we were in that bar? Yeah. And like the lady who was like opening the bar, the bartender or whatever she was,

she like opened, we're the first persons to walk in. And she looked at me and there was like a sign above the door it said you know it's like the open sign or whatever but it was like a sign that like had a string hanging from it and the string is attached to a chain you pull the chain like it turns on the little electric switch it was like a neon light or something yeah and she's like oh would you mind flipping this switch for me and i just reached up and i grabbed the thing and i didn't like i didn't like, I didn't feel it click. I don't know why I did this.

I still don't know why I did this, but I reached up and I grabbed it and I just pulled it. I pulled the whole chain right out of the sign or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. I remember. Yeah. And she just was like,

why did you do that? She looked at me like I was such an asshole. You reached up and you pulled it and you didn't stop. And I was like, no, people normally stop afterwards, but you're like, no, I i kept going i just kept going i guess i thought i was gonna feel it click differently or so i don't know what's wrong with me every once in a while i'm just like it broke and it's just like well yeah idiot yeah like it broke yeah it broke by

you breaking it broke it broke by you breaking it if you come to my kitchen you've been like all of my utensils have to be solid wood or solid metal. Cause all the like hybrid utensils, even like spatulas, I'll just break them. I don't know why every once in a while, I'm just like, now it's broken.

And it's like, well, yeah, yeah. You apply too much force body. You have no tactile. I don't. It's like,

there's no proprioception at all. You're like that kid who doesn't feel. So they walk real hard and break their legs. Like you're that kid. I will say too, like I hold my wife's hand a lot in the car. So like we'll drive and I'll like just be like holding her hand. And like, I'll be stressed about something and not even thinking about it.

She's like, ow. And I'll be like, what? And I won't even know, see? So I'll be like, what? And she's like, you're squeezing my hand. And I was just like, that probably wasn't true. Yikes. She's going gonna pull back a stump one day all right so this story comes from joe my god lawsuit tennessee ex-cop forcibly baptized woman

after pulling her over to search for drugs so what's funny is i remember when we first covered this in 2019 do you remember this this? Yeah, sure. Yeah. So I thought this was a great follow-up and I want to read some parts from it. So a U.S. District Court judge gave the go-ahead to a lawsuit against a former Hamilton County deputy accused of baptizing a woman against her will after a 2019 traffic stop. So this lady gets pulled over by this fucking lunatic and he's like, he finds like some marijuana. Sure. Yeah. And then he's like, well,

listen, I'll just like kind of let it go or give you a ticket or reduce the charges or whatever it is. Right. Right. If you let me baptize you and that's fucking weird. But then he like calls a deputy buddy of his to film it. And the part of the story that like i actually the reason i eat

because we covered this in 19 so i almost didn't cover this but the part of the story that makes me crazy is the judge dismisses the lawsuit against the guy that this fucking lunatic who by the way has like a million like fucking beating people up charges against him. Oh, does he? Yeah. This like, this guy has like, if you, in the full article, the guy who like baptized, he's, he's been arrested.

He's like being arraigned. He's like been kicked off the force. He's just an abusive guy. He's like, like a, what do they call it? Um, use of force.

Like pop. Yeah, there you go. Yeah. Yeah. He's just, he's just a piece of shit. Authoritarian fucking bootlicker. Like all the rest of these assholes. But yeah, he's just he's just a piece of shit authoritarian fucking bootlicker like all the rest of these assholes but yeah he but he calls his buddy and his and she's trying to file suit

against his buddy who filmed this shit because it's fucking egregious right and the cops like yeah qualified immunity it's fine she the lawsuit can't go through because that other guy still has qualified immunity. So the lawsuit goes through against the first guy. The first guy. Yeah, because it's a violation of her civil rights because it was religious. But if he had done something else, the lawsuit would probably not have gone through. And we know that because the lawsuit against the guy who filmed it, which is aiding and abetting it, right?

Yeah, which is weird, too, by the way. That's super weird. Can we just talk for a second about this particular thing about baptizing? Yeah. You know, like the baptized, like, is there a way to make your religion weirder? And the answer is yes.

You know, like your religion's already weird. So weird. Your religion is already very strange about the blood of Christ and you gotta be dipped in the tears of Christ or whatever to like blow those off of you and then you you're holy. And you know, you could say, I'm sorry after you murder somebody and it's totally fine or whatever. Right. So there's all these really weird, crazy things about your religion as it is, but now you're making it coercive.

Right. And it's just super strange. Like it's super creepy. Yeah, man. just super strange. Like it's super creepy. Yeah, man. There's so much that's fucking just insanely, religion is super weird. And it gets like, as time goes by and you look at these like bizarro traditions, like baptism and you're like, oh yeah, well like depending on like which flavor of Christianityianity you happen to want to imbibe like it's either this you know ritual at birth or near birth or it's this thing you take on when you're reborn and it's this washing away and it's like here's a story this parable about jesus getting his sins washed away and you're like man all that sounds crazy in a world where like there's space shuttles yeah like. Like none of that, all that sounds like, like it's insane to be like,

wow, you got to cut your foreskin off. Also, there's a rover on Mars. I feel the same way. And you're like, what is happening? What? So I, I love Christmas, Christmas time, Christmas in general. I love it. Yeah, it's wonderful.

And I love Christmas music that's religious. I love the choral, like the choruses and all that. I love it. Yeah, it's wonderful. And I love Christmas music that's religious. I love the choral, like the choruses and all that. I think it's awesome. One of my favorite stations at that time of year is the Mormon Tabernacle Choir

has a, like a choir, an entire choir arrangement that sings these songs with an orchestra. Okay. And I love it.

I think it's awesome. I like some of them. I think it's great. It's great. The songs are fucking crazy, man. They're it's awesome. I like some of them. I think it's great. It's great. The songs are fucking crazy, man. They're all like, he's the king of kings, the lord

of lords, the king of kings, the king of kings, the Jew of Jews. And you're just like, what is happening, man? But it's all just nuts. It's all just the kookiest shit you could possibly imagine. It's like a fucking bedtime story

and they're singing it to you. If you listen to it for half a second, you just immediately get pulled out of it. I'm like, this is the craziest shit I've ever heard in my entire life. But it's like the churches or whatever. You can appreciate the beauty of it, right? The arrangement and the skill

that it takes these people to do it. Yeah, and then there's all that tradition associated with it. Yeah, you can there's all that tradition associated with it. Yeah. You can appreciate it. But at the same time, when you think about the story and the actual things behind it, it's fucking nuts,

man. It, it, it really, it re and as time goes on, it seems crazier rather than less crazy. Right. And it's,

it's, it's, if you divorce, because at this point I've become completely divorced from any connection to it emotionally like I've ever had. And so now it really is the same arm's length kind of storytelling as any other story, right?

Right, right. And so when you hear it, it's like, well, yeah, I wanted to baptize. I pulled this woman over on the side of the road and she had these dirty, sinful marijuana cigarettes. And so I called my buddy. Which are legal in like 10 states, by the way.

Right, right. Yeah. And incidentally, she was hiding one of them in nature's pocket. So that made me laugh. In this story. She had a crotch roach?

She did. Oh, that's like an earwig. That's... So I called my buddy That's, so like, and then I called, so I called my buddy and then we were like, we're totally going to wash her

away of her sins and we're going to use the laziest washing metaphor ever, which is baptism. Right, right. You know, and it's just like,

oh, fucking, this is so, if God was real, he didn't invent a story that was like, not fucking lazy. We should get baptized.

We should, we want to get baptized? We should get to get baptized you should get baptized somewhere we should go someplace you go somewhere we should get baptized in a bunch of different places we get mormon baptized we should go somewhere far away where nobody knows us join their church and then be like we really just want to get back i wonder how fast we could get back oh see how quick you could get baptized in all religions yes how cool how many religions save people and how many religions can we get saved how many can you do right like how many can you i want to get i want to get baptized in like that raglocks church i'm converting i want to get i want to get i want to get baptized i'm gonna learn that shit i'm already circumcised. Thank God you're already cut.

Because the initiation process. It's a little rough. There's less initiation to like prison gangs than like becoming Jewish if you're not snipped, man. Oh, I had a funny. So this week, so I'm listening to this book. I can't remember the author's name. It's Yuval something or other. Homo Deus is the book. He's the same guy who wrote Sapiens, which is like to this book. I can't remember the author's name. It's Yuval something or other. Homo Deus is the book. It's the same guy who wrote Sapiens, which is a big book.

So I'm listening to this Homo Deus book. And incidentally, it's a big, long-ass book. So it's a long fucking read. And I also find it absolutely one of the most unsettlingly depressing things I've ever read. I listen to it at Cecil for 45 minutes and I'll turn it off. And I'm just like- What's it about?

Man, it's another one of these like social psychological history books that like tells us. And so this one is about like, look, here's the general trajectory of the human species. And here's what we really, like here's some things that are true

about how we as people act and work and think. And if these things are true, here's what is likely to be true next, right? And there's a chapter that I've been trying to listen to for a week, which is about really the rise of the algorithm and how here's how algorithms work. Here's what they've accomplished so far. Here's likely what they will be able to do in five to 10 years. Here's what they're likely to be able to do

by say 2033. And you're like, oh my God, I have to turn it off. And like, then I go like, jerk off to Requiem for a dream just to feel happy again. You know, like it's bad, dude. It's bad.

Like it hits a spot in me that I'm like, one, I recognize I'm emotionally sensitive and sympathetic to. Sure. So like I listened to it. I'm just like, oh God, like the death of art and culture and all of everything, man.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, but like there is a part where he's talking about religion. And I thought about circumcision when he was talking about it. Cause he's like, look, you know, all religions do the same thing is they make you, they create this in-group experience by making certain things that are pleasurable, unpleasant. And then as you buy

into them and as you've done them for a while, essentially what he's describing is a sunk cost fallacy begins to settle in. which is like well i all this i didn't cut my fucking dick skin off for nothing you know like what i cut my dick skin off for is so i could be buddies with other guys that had their dick skin cut off with right and so i guess i never thought about religion as a sunk cost fallacy so it makes you give up all the i think i thought and i thought about lent, right? So it's Lent right now. Yeah. And I had dinner with a bunch of work people and a lot of them were religious and Catholic.

And so they were talking about what they'd given up for Lent. I see. And that's always weird because then like I've got to like be real quiet and it feels conspicuously quiet. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they're all talking about giving stuff up for Lent. I thought of the same example. And I thought like, of course you have to ritualistically and repeatedly give something up. It's unpleasant. And the unpleasantness reinforces that it has to

be true. Otherwise, why would I have given up chocolate? I wouldn't do this if it wasn't real. Right. Yeah. No, that's really interesting. So it's, it's, it's really, it really just like shows you how, how, how you just have to keep reinforcing, reinforcing and keep like, I got a tithe every week. Why do I have to tithe every week? Well, one, because the church gets paid.

And of course they're the guys that wrote the fucking book, but also God, I gave away 10% of my income for nothing. Yeah. Cause it wasn't true. How long, right. For how long your life.

And then the more you give, the more you think, the more you just locked in. Yeah. Right. And there's so many little pieces of that. Sure. So it's just, I just thought it was kind of yeah yeah that's interesting i guess i never thought of it like that but that's a really interesting way to look at it is that breeze

absolutely wonderful um excuse me yeah what animal are you again i just i i can't seem to find you on my list. Oh, I should be on there. What are you? I'm a lizard. A lizard? What kind? A big one. A big lizard. Yeah. You're a dinosaur, aren't you? Yeah. This story comes from Americans United. I grabbed this story, Cecil, because we've been here, buddy. Been to the art park, my bud. Six years later, a creationist theme park is not paying off for Kentucky. The other thing I thought is

we went here like six years ago. Yeah, we went there when it was pretty new. It was like brand new. Yeah, I don't know if it was six. I think it was five. I think it was five years ago. It was like for about a year. Yeah, I don't know if it was six. I think it was five. I think it was five years ago. It was like for about a year. Yeah.

When was that? Because five years ago was 2016-ish. It would be 2017, right? Yeah, 2000, maybe like late 2016. It had to be 16. Yeah, that's what it was. So this was like fairly new. Yeah. And man, it wasn't Yeah. So this was like fairly new. Yeah.

And man, it wasn't hard to get a fucking parking spot. No, it was wide open. It was easy to get a parking spot. We didn't walk very far to get in. I know. I'm sure. You know, I'll tell you what, if they open a fucking, you know, six flags. Oh, I know.

Like they open that fucker up. They open a Krispy Kreme. You can't get donuts for three weeks. This is like, this is, that's fried dough, man. I know. This is like your eternal salvation with a fucking wife-sized actual cubit-sized

ark. And these guys are like, like, the one thing that is crazy about this is there's people who are kind of, they're ark watchers, right? Yes. What they do is they just pay attention to what's happening with this stupid fucking park

and they report on it throughout the whole time. They love hating this thing. They love hating on it. It's awesome, right? It is. Because it's a really hate, it's very easy to hate.

It's very easy to hate it because the guy's an absolute douche, right? Ken Ham's an absolute douche. We don't know who Ken Ham is. He's an, his organization is called Answers in Genesis and he's the one who years ago, if you don't know who Ken Ham is. He's an, his organization called Answers in Genesis. And he's the one who years ago, if you don't remember, he's the guy years ago who debated

Bill Nye. I don't know if you remember this. Ken Ham versus Bill Nye. I can't quite remember exactly what they debated on. I thought maybe it was climate change, but I can't remember. I don't remember either. To be honest, I don't remember. It wasn't the existence of God? I don't think so. Maybe it was intelligent design or climate change. I can't remember. I don't remember either. To be honest, I don't remember. It wasn't the existence of God? I don't think so. Maybe it was intelligent design or climate change.

I can't remember which one it was. Someone will correct. Someone will send me the full thing. Someone is into this. Someone knows. I don't remember. Those aren't my favorite things anyway, right?

Like I know a lot of people love the, like. The debates. Like debating that person and killing them with facts and knowledge. That's not my favorite shit. I don't really like that stuff, The debates were big in like

new atheism for a while. Early on for me, I watched a few of them, but I, I stopped relatively quickly because for me, it's like, like once I'm here, I don't need to hear over and over again why I don't believe that I'm okay. I listened to many dozens of them. Yeah. Many dozens. I maybe listened to about four. Oh yeah. I listened to many dozens of them. Yeah. I've listened to the big ones or whatever, but other than that, I've never really about four. Oh. Yeah. I listen to many dozens of them. Yeah. I've listened to the big ones or whatever, but other than that, I've never really done it. But in any case,

that's Ken Ham is one of these master debaters, right? So of course you know who he is. And he's- He'll never admit it. He's got this crazy fucking nutcase park down there that is a wife size. He says it's like an actual size. Sure. Or whatever.

Sure. No, it is. Sure it is. It is. Sure it is. You know, if you're just using your imagination, sure, it's as big as you think it should be,

whatever. And inside it are creatures that never existed or a whole bunch of empty cages with bird sounds behind them. They have a poop shovel in there to tell you they actually had to shovel poop. And then there's like, like just,

there's just insanity throughout the entire thing. And it's connected by ramps so that even like people, well, even people who will get, you know, like they want to make sure that everybody it's accessible to everyone. And actually, to be honest,

the ramps don't make it accessible. The ramps are like, the ramps are super steep and the corners are really sharp. There's like corners and it feels like you would need a go-kart, not like a scooter thing to get up and down on that thing. Now I want to ride a go-kart. Oh, God. I want to ride a go-kart with one of those cow catchers on it

and just knock people out of the way. But that's what the place is. And I remember when we were there there was one part that there was a huge line for it was like this huge line it's around the around the fucking corner around the country and we thought it was going to be something amazing okay this is where like the showbiz pizza part is right where there's going to be an animatronic devil eating like humans or whatever you come around the corner and it was just like, I don't even think it was like a diorama.

I think it was just like some bad paintings. Yeah, it was, I remember it was like, and it was like hell, like it was hellfire stuff or something like that. It was either hell or it was the end of worlds. The end of when he eaten or when. Oh, the destruction of shit. Destruction of shit or something.

It was like the part that everybody, like the part that created the fucking train wreck, like backup though, was the part of human misery and suffering. That's the, that's the thing that everybody stopped. Right. That's the part.

Everybody is like fucking rubberneck. We stopped there too. And we were just like, what is, why are people looking at this? This is worthless. It wasn't even good human suffering. it wasn't even interesting.

Yeah. It wasn't like, this was not like the combined works of Hieronymus Bosch, right? Like it was, you're just like looking at it and you're like, yeah, man.

Like when I was a kid, I put my fucking GI Joe's in a fucking shoe box once too. Like who fucking cares? It's terrible. It's terrible. But this car, this park is something that people like to pay attention to. Yes.

And they like to pay attention to it. They'd like to pay attention to its numbers, how it's doing. It's not doing well. It's not doing well at all. It's constantly going down. Fewer and fewer people are showing up. They like to pay attention

to what their hiring practices are. And their hiring practices include some very strict codes that you have to live by. Like you have to have like a chastity code or something. You gotta like sign off that you're not gonna like jerk off or like love anybody that's the wrong shape or whatever.

Yeah, or shade or something. I don't know. But in any case, they have this really strict code of ethics that you have to follow. And the other thing too that they like to point out is that how much money it's getting in tax breaks and from different, you know, and things around it are being improved, even though there's no tourism business coming in from this fucking arc park. Yeah.

And you got to understand where this is at. It's in the middle of nowhere. It's not anywhere. It's we we stayed in Kentucky. We stayed in Louisville. Yeah. And then we, we had to drive like a good distance, a serious distance. Yeah. And it's, I, as I remember you drive down a nothing dirt style, like gravelly, nothing road, you know, it's a, it's just trees and woods all around. And then there's a big giant parking lot, but the parking lot wasn't like paved big,

you know, this was just like, like kind of like a fairgrounds kind of a field. And then there's the fucking arc and the arc is goddamn enormous, but it's in the middle of fucking nowhere. And there's nobody that wants to work there. And there's nobody that's going there. And the thing is the taxpayers paid for it. Yeah. That's the reason I think that people, so many people have such a big bug up their ass about it. Sure.

It's like, like if that's your money, who cares? Right? Like, yeah. But if you make money through tax breaks, if you're getting money through like junk bonds and all this stuff,

and then they're like taxing people around you and giving you them like that's, that's shitty. Yeah. To the tune of like tens of millions of dollars and then they're in an area that clearly does not have tens of millions of extra dollars well and then they're there they are going out of their way to improve the roadways to improve traffic but you don't need it right there's no we did not run into traffic no there wasn't any traffic and we were there like i said the first

year yeah so things are exciting their first year. After a while, it's like, want to go back to the Ark Park? Like, why? No. To look at a cage that doesn't have a bird in it?

Well, and then, and then. I could get one of those at Goodwill. There's cages that don't have birds and I'm at Goodwill. I imagine, too, that the most times that people go

are when there's a protest because I know atheists go there once in a while to protest. They probably get their most business then. Right, yeah. I'm sure they do. Yeah. I'm sure they do. It's a protest because I know atheists go there once in a while to protest. They probably get their most business then. Right, yeah. I'm sure they do.

I'm sure they do. It's a, I will say the Ark Park is worth a laugh. Yeah. And it is difficult, difficult,

if not impossible for somebody with a rational mindset to go to the Ark Park and not fall over laughing. You can't do it. It's the stupidest thing. Because we tried not to. We tried not to,

we're trying to be, we're trying to be polite and respectful, but there was, there was several times where we stopped and we're just like, what the fuck? Holy shit. You know, they have stuff on the wall where it's like an,

an everybody died, but eight of them or something. Yeah. And it's the, it's, and they're just like proud of it. They're everyone, including the animals.

And you're like, baby animals, like all the kittens, but one are dead. You're like, really? This is what you're jerking off to? This is your fantasy story? Right. It's terrifying.

You're the worst. This is another one of those. When you say it out loud, it's fucking nuts. You're a crazy person if you believe this. I was thinking about this for some reason. I was thinking about this today at the grocery store of all places. I was thinking like, if you read a religious text or rule or whatever, and it conflicts with your personal values, how do you, and I mean this, like, how do you reconcile this?

And I was thinking like, you know, so many religious texts are just full of like, I mean, honest, genuinely monstrous shit. Sure. But religious people aren't filled with generally monstrous values. No. And so, and I know that some of them are unaware of the, because a lot of people are illiterate with respect to their holy text. Most people haven't read it. But there are a lot of people who have. And so I know that there are a lot of techniques to sort of match the two. Like incognitive dissonance is one of them.

Where you just sort of like say, well, that's true and this is true. And that makes me feel weird. So I lock them both away in separate closets. Yeah. But I was thinking about that today. And I was like, you know, if you were approached with religion after you had already established a set of secular morals. And somebody said, okay, well, I want to introduce you to Christianity. And you'd never heard of it before.

And you always had these secular morals. And the morals were basic, everyday, run-of-the-mill ethics because ethics is not actually day-to-day terribly complicated, right? And you're like, okay, well, here's how this is going to work. And then they lay this story out. You would look at them like they were fucking insane. You would literally look at them like they were insane. And you'd be like, your is full of like really awful stuff like

i like that's on like we can't what yeah there's no way you can get there like oh and let me tell you about when everybody dies yeah but that's a good thing and you're like everybody dies can i tell you quickly the story about a guy who's gonna kill his son but then god at the very last minute is like nah just fucking with you, bro. Right. I do remember what I was thinking about. I was thinking about the story of Easter. Oh, yeah.

Because we're buying stuff for Easter baskets today. So I was thinking about the story of Easter. And I was thinking, this story is fucking nuts. Oh, yeah. The story of Easter itself is crazy. It's crazy and it's in it's it's a blood god wanting a blood sacrifice for you know like like well and then the the rising of the dead and the and the torture and the i mean there's so many pieces of it that are just fucking crazy just i mean really insane

and then it's like well and then all the gospels don't match and they don't all tell the same story. And, and I think the gospel of John, there's zombies like in more than one. And, but we're just going to ignore that. And we don't tell that, that part of the story of the whole story of Easter is actually an amalgamation of the pieces that like modern audiences are more sympathetic to that are sort of combined from four different gospels are not actually one of the god and so but we'll ignore but even if you ignore all that stuff and you're just like all right why did that have to happen again it's like well oh yeah well because everybody's bad everybody's so bad everybody's bad so so bad and you're like they need something to die right but only one of them

and you're like well what if some like i don't think actually most people i meet are fine yeah most people aren't most people don't do actually most people I meet are fine. Yeah. Most people aren't, most people don't do anything that's so bad that someone would need to die for. Well, that's the thing is like most people

do anything. And actually, I can't think of a single thing something someone should be able to do. Like it's, it's a weird moral calculus that you've done.

It is where it's like, I did something so bad you have to die for it. It's like, the fuck are you talking about? But also it's like, you know, most people you meet, like they just get to say, I'm sorry once in a while. And then everybody's-

And then they live their life and that's it. Yeah. Like with this idea, like this grand idea that we all have something to be forgiven for. Like we're just rotten, shitty people. That is also one of the messages. And that's a fucked message, man. It's like, well, rotten shitty old people that is that is also one of the messages and it's that's a fucked message man it's like well we gotta do that so that way god can't just forgive everybody it's like well maybe just fucking be a little more understanding well and what it does is it what

well what it does is it amplifies things that aren't sins into sins right right it just turns those things into you know being lustful or whatever is suddenly a sin. And you're like, come on, man. Everybody's lustful in their life. But the idea that that's bad is stupid. That's human nature. That's how we fucking procreate. It's literally the only...

You built this machine and now you're mad at the machine for needing gas. And it's like, why do you need gas? I got to kill a different machine because you want gas. And you're like, what, what kind of story are you telling? Why? Like why any of this?

You can't, I will, I will genuinely challenge you. You can't explain the Easter story to people that are not religious. No, I don't think you can. Because my kids aren't religious. And if I were to,

I could not, you can't, I don't know how you do it. What would you say? I don't know how you do it. I don't know how you do it. It's fucking bonkers. You have to use language like sacrifice and love the world and all this stuff that like you have to buy into in order to believe it. Right. When you turn it into a human did a thing, right? A guy, because I don't believe in divine shit, right? So if you tell me a guy for the rest of the world sacrificed himself, I'm like, how and why? Yeah, right. Well, see, you see, there's God.

There's a magic. I don't believe in your magic. And he doesn't like it when people sin. When you tell me the story like straight away without the magic, it's crazy. And then when you add the magic, it's crazier. That's the thing, the magic it's crazy yeah and then when you add the magic it's crazier that's the thing the magic in the magic makes it worse yeah and then all the reasons why things have to happen i mean they if you if you just stop and like pull yourself back from like all the indoctrination

most of us had around sin and you just sort of like but most people just are fine yeah like there's like i speed once in a while. That's what I mean. It's like, well, yeah, I tell you, I,

I told a white lie to like get out of work on a Tuesday. Whoa, I got to kill a guy to make that right. And you're like, well, maybe you don't. I cut in line at the grocery store. The lady clearly looked at the other woman and I was like,

I'm next. And I walked forward. I should go to hell. What are you fucking talking about? It's like, it's almost Eastern. It's just like, it's like, well, you know, I saw somebody's watch and it was nice. And I thought I would like that watch. Now you have to kill your son. Magic sky. You'll never be able to forgive me for liking a watch. Yeah, man. What are you fucking talking about? That makes no sense. It's all nuts. Ian, what are you doing? Gary,

I found my passion. I'm 3D printing custom sex toys. Why would you do that? Why not? Who would want that? There's people. Name two. Look, I'll put out feelers, but there's people out there. You're out there. What? So, what are you printing right now? Oh, my creation?

Boxes. Boxes? Yeah, my creation? Boxes. Yeah, a lot of them. You tell me. Oh, yeah, that reminds me. We're going to do an Easter presale. No, it'll be great. We're going to call it the Rez Erection. This product will make you rise in three days or less.

Exactly. You'll be having a great Friday. For the love of Pete. but it's a little... This product will make you rise in three days or less. Oh, Jesus. Exactly. You'll be having a great Friday. For the love of Pete. Put a new meaning on Palm Sunday. Okay, okay, stop. Don't you think this is a conflict of interest? With what?

AdamandEve.com. What's that? Really, all this set up for such a lazy transition? Shut up, Gary. AdamandEve.com is your one-stop shop for all your sex toy needs. We have thousands of products for you to enjoy. And when you use code GLORY, you get 50% off almost any one item.

And then Adam and Eve loads on the free stuff. A gift for you, a gift for your special someone, and one you'll both enjoy. Plus, six free spicy movies. And free shipping. See you. Oh, yeah, well, maybe I'll license it to them and just, you know, yada, yada, yada. It's fine. Now, I need your help with something else I'm printing. What is that over there? Hold on. Oh, my God, it's an abomination. When I give the word, throw the first switch. You've got it, master! Get ready! Get set! Go! Throw the second switch!

Throw the third switch! Not the third switch! Throw it, I say! Throw it! switch? Throw it, I say! Throw it! Life! Life, do you hear me? Give my creation life! Turn everything off and bring me down!

Nothing. Oh, Doctor, I'm sorry. No, no. Be of good cheer. If science teaches us anything, it teaches us to accept our failures as well as our successes with quiet dignity and grace. You son of a bitch bastard, I'll get you for this.

What did you do to me? Don't touch, don't touch, don't kill him. What did you do to me? Quiet dignity and grace, hmm. You should have gone to adamandeve.com and used code GLORY. Oh, Mama! Some of you may be wondering whether or not it's actually possible for a person to become addicted to pornography, since it doesn't seem to be drug related. Professor Harper, does it have an escalating effect like the drug addictions?

It really does, Brad. You said they suffer great losses. What were you referring to? If you feel the temptation is getting the upper hand, get some support from someone you trust. And I just want all you guys to know I'm available for you anytime you might need me. You're stronger if you try not to fight it alone. This story comes from Only Sky. Christian evangelist, Kenneth Copeland, is still spreading lies about COVID. Okay. So when this story,

so this story is reflecting on old things too. It is, yeah. And we're going to watch the old things. It's so great. Because here's the thing, Tom. Yeah. When this came out, you and I had shifted gears.

Yes. So when COVID first hit, we decided, you know what? That's a little heavy. Well, not only is a little heavy, but it's literally the only thing to talk about.

Right. Everybody was either COVID denier, or there was religious people talking about COVID, or it was in the news, or it was in politics, whatever it was, whatever we covered on this show. It was just COVID.

It was just COVID because there was no other news at that point. So we just decided, you know what we're going to do? We're going to do goofy stories for a little while. We're just going to have fun. We did Man Bites Dog

for like a year. Yeah, we did all the goofiest, shittiest, weirdest stories we could find and we had fun doing it. Honestly, it was a great year. Right, we skipped this. We did not watch

Kenneth Copeland's Oily Hand and we need to watch Kenneth Copeland's Oily Hand because we never did when it happened. It's true. So we're going to watch it now. This is Kenneth Copeland's oily hand and we need to watch Kenneth Copeland's oily hand because we never did when it happened. It's true. So we're going to watch it now. This is Kenneth Copeland. Now this is on Twitter. I got to pause it here for a second. And all you people who are listening to this, just if you've,

I'm sure many of you have seen this. I'm sure many of you have seen this already. It's where he's reaching out. He essentially, he's like a shaved hobgoblin. Like the guy 100% looks like, he genuinely looks like the devil put on some human makeup. That's what he looks like to me.

He does not look like a human being. He looks like a caricature of an evil person. Yes. He 100% does. He has all the craziest features and his hand is glistening from oil. So that's what we're, that's what you're going to see.

I don't know if he's just fisting somebody and if you want to fist somebody with your handful of oil. Head over to adamandeve.com. Adamandeve.com type in Gloria checkout. You'll get 50% off almost any item. Including fisting oils. It could be fisting oils. Who knows? All right. So here we go. We're going to play this.

Put your hand on that television set. Yes, Lord. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. Okay, so I know the people listening. Guys, this is weird. I know the people listening hear two voices. There's only one person.

Yeah, that's true. Just imagine somebody right now leaning over your shoulder saying these things, because that's what it feels like when you watch it. And actually, I will also add that from like a technical perspective, you've got to understand how staged this is, right? Because they had to separately

mic this person that is the call and response guy, which means that he had to be like, alright, here's what we're going to do. We're going to, at 21 minutes, 35 seconds, I'm going to dip my hand in the fucking, you know, Palmolive or whatever he's got. I'm going to fist this chicken

and then I'm going to come over. We're going to do our thing. So I'm going to be like, ho-ba-ja-ba-ja-ba, touch your TV and you're going to be like, oh yeah, get that TV touch. It's so scripted. Yeah.

You've got to know it's scripted because otherwise you would not have this level of audio. It's not just scripted though. It's also like awkwardly scripted. You'll hear it as we go. But there is no second person. So I want to let people know who's listening to this audio. There is no second person. It is

only a shaved hobgoblin. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Jesus. He received your healing. Yes. Now. He receives your...

Wait, he receives your healing now? Does Jesus receive my healing? How does it get to him? In a teller tube? Did I have to heal? Are his hands whole again? Does he have like an... Jesus just has like a palm olive bubble there

and he's like... He's blowing bubbles to his hands because he's dipped his hands in oil. I feel like there's some pronoun confusion right now. It feels weird. It feels very strange. He receives your healing. Is your Jesus?

I don't know how any of this works, but I will say this. The dangerous part of all this is this is happening like March 30th of last year. This is early. No, pardon me. Not last year, two years ago, 2020, not March of last year. Cause March of last year, we had a vaccine on the horizon very soon for a lot of people. In fact, many people had already been stuck. This is two years ago, March of that year, when they just sort of sent everybody home for a month of don't come to work. Right.

And this is when he's doing this. So there's a lot of people now that are terrified of this and could have been some people who were sick. And I will add too, Kenneth Copeland's audience is older. Yeah. So the most at risk people who are beginning to understand, and by the end of March, you're beginning to understand that this is a problem, which will disproportionately affect older people rather than younger.

So his audience right now is at home and vulnerable. Yeah. Emotionally. And that's what he's, and that's what he's doing. Say it. I now is at home and vulnerable. Yeah. Emotionally vulnerable. And that's what he's doing. Say it, I take it. I take it. I have it. I have it.

It's mine. It's mine. Take it. I have it. It's mine. So that's what I say? I say take it. Everybody says it.

I have it. It's mine. Okay, so evidently it's the healing is you're taking it. If you want to take it for some healing, you can head over to adamandeve.com. It's a Marvin Gaye song.

It is. It's sexual healing. It is. Take it. I thank you and praise you for it. Yes. And I forgive if I have ought against any. I forgive.

If I what? And I praise you that I'm well and whole. I praise you that I'm well and whole. Wait a minute. Is he forgiving me now? I'm genuinely confused. Is he now doing the forgiving? I forgive.

Is Kenneth Copeland. I don't know, man. Because the next thing he says, I genuinely don't know if he's the mouth. I don't know, man. I don't know. I don't actually know how this works. None of it makes any sense

if you're thinking of it from a single perspective. It doesn't make sense. I think he's two parts in the same play right now. Like this feels like, this feels like Hamlet and Mercutio. Like he's like, this feels like the fucking end of blood Meridian where you don't know what's going on.

I don't know that they're in the same play. No, that one is Romeo and Juliet. That's even better. That's even better. According to the word of God, According to the word of God. According to the word of God. I'm healed.

Yes. And I consider not my own body. Yes, consider not. But if you consider not, then why did you need to be healed? Right, thank you. If I'm not worried about the machine. Why are you wasting God's time like this?

He has like some hound dog brushing to do. Like what the fuck, man? He's a busy boy. He's got like trout fishing. He's got some hound dog brushing to do. Like what the fuck, man? He's a busy boy. He's got like trout fishing. He's got to fucking get his straw. I've been working on my taxidermy game. I've been weaving up

this straw hat all day. Look, man, I made three raccoons in a canoe rowing a little boat down the street. It's adorable. It's adorable taxidermy.

You can't buy that at no garage sale, man. Not my own body. I consider not symptoms in my body. I consider not symptoms in my body. But only that which God has promised. Only that which God has promised. Only that what the word has said. Only that what the word has said.

And by his stripes, I was healed. And by his stripes, I am healed now. I'm not the sick trying to get healed. I'm the healed and the devil's trying to give me the flu. Train. Or whatever else kind of thing he's trying. Yeah. I love how he's just making it all.

He's making it all. This goes along, right? Right now. There's no plan. Anybody that we've ever had on the show that was previously religious that did sort of any of this prophetess bullshit, they can all do this. It's just talking,

and it's all the same sort of phrases. There's a linguistic muscle memory to it. And then you put these phrases together in an order, and it doesn't even matter what order. Right. Because you could just say these phrases, and everybody in the crowd knows. But it was funny,

because he started going too fast for the people to sort of respond. So the call was just him over and over and over and over again. And then finally, when he got to the end, they're just like, yeah. Man, this is that like cryptic religious deepity bullshit. Yeah, yeah. Where it's just a bunch of circular language that you can never pin down and say, what the fuck do you actually, what are you actually saying? What do you believe? And you're just like, well, I am the body that was healed by the sins of Christ in the amens. And you're like,

what are you, what the fuck? I want you to diagram that sentence right now. I'll give you $100. It's fucking jabberwocky bullshit. It is bullshit. This guy is amazing too. He fucking, doesn't he look like the fucking leprechaun? Yes. He looks like leprechaun from the movie Leprechaun. From that movie Leprechaun.

He very much looks like that. God, look at that smile. Do you trust that smile cecil man who's watching this like that's a smile i trust that's a guy i trust what is wrong in your life that's a dude i trust evidently he's like days later this is still from heman's article it says days later when the prayers failed copeland claimed COVID scare would be over soon because they had prayed about it. And so here's what it is. Here's him saying basically that it's going to be over soon.

Now this is again, days after, this is now maybe April, maybe April of 2020. So 2020, I just want people to sort of stand for a second and think about how long ago 2020 feels. That's when he said this, right? In April. And suddenly the Lord said this to me and I jumped up, ran in there and wrote it down.

I wouldn't want to forget what God said. That kind of shit slips my mind. It's really important, yeah. You know, I've got that selective hearing thing. I won't shut the fuck up you know what i mean it's just always like all right god all right king of kings all right omniscient creator of all matter and time itself i'm watching my show i'm busy now thank you very much. Jesus. Game of Thrones is on. Thank you. This disease called CODV-19.

CODV. What is it? CODV? CODV. CODV? Call of Duty virus? The Call of Duty virus. That tracks.

All right. Do you think his, like uh the flu or whatever codv like is he's got that like old man like let me get out my vdr player you know like but i think it's intentional i don't think he doesn't know what fucking covid is right like he's not a you got it he's a fucking incredibly rich guy everything he's doing is staged he doesn't know how to not pronounce covid he doesn't need to read it off his piece of paper he's a fucking incredibly rich guy. Everything he's doing is staged. He doesn't know how to not pronounce COVID. He doesn't need to read it off his piece of paper. He's doing it so he could diminish it. He's exactly.

He's being dismissive by being like, I didn't, I don't even know what it is. I didn't even get the words in order. Who cares? My DVCR player is all on pause repeats. Gene sequencing. I can't even sequence the letters for this.

Are you kidding me? You got gene sequencing? I got genes in my closet. Get out of here. You fucking asshole. No, he doesn't. Be over much sooner than you think. Is that Glenn Beck?

No. Okay. Is it? No. I thought it was a Sean. I thought it was a Sean Glenn Beck with him thought it was a Shorn Glenn Beck with him but it's not call CODV19

like when you give a fluffy dog a bath and a haircut and all of a sudden they're like smaller and a little ratty you get a cat wet yeah it's like

is that is that the cat I owned earlier can you imagine like Glenn Beck wet he's just like he's just all shrunken and small just a

whatever happened to Glenn Beck is he dead or something no he's still he's still, he's just all shrunken and small. Just a, uh, whatever happened to Glenn Beck? Is he dead or something? No, he's still, he's still talking. He's still doing it. Oh God. I saw a clip of him, uh, having a conversation with, um, who's that gay guy on Twitter? Milo Yiannopoulos. No, no, no, no, no. He's not gay anymore. Cause dogs like, no, he's the gay guy. Who's like a traditional liberal or whatever. He'll treat classical liberally. Oh, not Ben Shapiro. Dave Rubin,ave rubin dave rubin so dave rubin married a dude yeah and then they adopted kids two babies all right great sure not great for all the people that he talks to i actually saw something they fucking hate they hate it they hate it they turned on and then they

have surprise and then they have to like have a conversation with him where he demeans his own having of kids and stuff. Are you serious? Yeah, it's really terrible. Oh, God. It's really... And then Glenn Beck. Dave Rubin is garbage. And Glenn Beck is having one of these conversations.

I had to turn it off. I was just like, oh, this is cringy. I can't watch this. Dave Rubin is... He's one of those guys that sold out to the right and has been cashing the checks. Yeah. But seems to be somehow

both aware and surprised by the fact that he is a fucking puppet they hate. Yeah. That's all he is. Yeah. I mean, he's the guy that they're able to point to

and be like, whoa, we like gay guys. Right. We like gay guys that hate themselves. And we like liberals. We like gay guys that hate themselves publicly. What are you, crazy? Of course guys. Right. We like gay guys that hate themselves. And we like liberals. We like gay guys that hate themselves publicly.

What are you, crazy? Of course we like that. We like liberals as long as they're classic liberals, which isn't actually a meaningful phrase any longer. Self-hating gays and liberals that aren't liberals, those are our favorite people. We love them. They're our favorite.

And people that are willing to cash our checks. Will be over much sooner than you think okay it's christian people all was it oh it's past omicron what is it now tom beta yeah i think it's ba2 the stealth omicron stealth omicron like yeah now omicron can't be detected on radars it's a whole fucking thing now so it's still still going so you would say still going it's still half still going it's actually on the increase you know it's up it's up over 10 on a 14 day still going. Still going. It's actually on the increase. You know, it's up, it's up over 10% on a 14 day average.

According to New York times. I will say that, uh, we are in a position right now where, uh, it's still going, but in God's eyes, that's really a short amount of time. That's true.

He says it's a short amount of time. It's a short, I like what he says too. Like it's going to be over sooner than you think. I mean, I actually thought this was going to drag on for a while. What do you think? Really?

That's as fucking definitive as God can give me? And God's like, I know I create all things, including literally this virus. Look, I'm going to let it go for a bit, but I will stop it. But you guys, what's going to have to happen is

the right people have to ask me real nice. And someone has to come up with a vaccine. I mean, like, of course, that's going to happen. I mean, don't get crazy. God help. I hope those who help themselves. You're going to have to social distance. You have to wear a mask. And you're probably like, you're probably going to have to get a lot of you are going to have to get it during Omicron. Like a whole fucking lot of you are going to have to get distance. You have to wear a mask. And you're probably like, you're probably going to have to get, a lot of you are going to have to get it during Omicron.

Like a whole fucking lot of you are going to have to get it. Here's the thing. About a million Americans have to die and about six million so far across the globe have to die. Yeah. But, and then some of you guys are going to, here's a cool thing. Some of you guys are going to get it and never get better too. So there's that part too. So got that going.

Anyway, that's a great thing. Very soon though. Any minute now. All over this country praying have over So there's that part too. So got that going. Anyway, that's a great thing. Very soon though. Any minute now. All over this country praying have overwhelmed it. Give me all the glory, saith the spirit of grace. Many and many, many people will come to know me. Well, then he's sitting there writing it down. He's like, okay, how many many's is that God?

Hold on. I had to write this down. I had to go. You were nagging at me for a half an hour. You said many, many, many, or is it many, many, many, many? My pen's on ink. Hang on a minute. I'm doing that, like, slapping against the table thing. You're, like, licking it, rubbing it on your hand.

Give it another piece of paper. Just sometimes you got to get it started on something. It's not working. I don't like pencils. I don't know why you keep telling me to get a pencil. I don't like lead. I just don't like it. You got to get a sharpener. You like how it sounds. It has a whole sound scratchy thing.

I'm not crazy about it. It's a sensory thing. Jesus, literally you. He threw it. I'm still Lord over the nation. I'm on the throne and faith in me changes things. Whenever my dad was on the throne throne we weren't supposed to bother him I love that at the end of this

he looks at him like he's going to drop that paper like he's like I fucking I nailed this let's just do it one more time still lord over the nation I'm on the throne and faith in me changes things glory to god there we go on the throne and faith in me change his things. Glory to God. Glory to God.

There we go. Reverger, fruger, regal, brogal. So those are two in a row. Yeah. First he oiled himself up.

Now he's going in dry. Yeah. And neither of them worked. Neither of them worked. You can't be pro-labor when you're having sex with the boss all the time. Guys, I'm not anti-labor, okay? I'm just saying...

retail is dying. And we're already being replaced by machines that can do our jobs better and faster than us. And-and most of us have no education, no skills, and are just generally terrible. No offense. So maybe we should just be happy with what we've got, you know, because for most of us, this is as good as it's ever going to get.

That said, I'm generally pro-labor. that said, I'm generally pro-labor. So before you jump in here, Tom, you did hear about Amazon, one of their warehouses- Yeah, unionized. Became unionized. Unionized. This last week on The Daily,

they did an interview with these two guys that really sort of were the impetus to push this thing over the edge. And really fascinating interview to hear the ways that they were pushed around, the ways that they were getting fired. Like people were getting fired. And the way that they created community.

It was really, really interesting. Listen, I would suggest it's about an hour program. It's a long daily. Really interesting program. And I think that it, you know, you talk about unions. Unions used to be, when I was a kid, unions were it. Like that was the thing. Like if you got a union job, a union job was a good job. That was a good job. And then there just became this sort of union busting attitude by not just like the higher ups, but people in the middle class thought unions sucked too. They got brainwashed into thinking unions suck. But unions are fucking amazing, powerful forces that can help workers.

And we just lost it in this country. Yeah. If you look at most of the things that you think about as workplace protections that you rely on every day that you wake up and go to work, unions gave you those things. You know, if you work five days and not seven unions, 40 hour weeks, if you have, right. If you, I mean the 40, the, the very idea of time off, then the very idea of paid time off, then the very idea of things like workplace protection so that people who get hurt on the job have recourse. Unions created even for the non-unionized. We all have benefited from the cultural and social shifts and changes around the idea of what it means to work and what it means to not work. Yeah. Unions were essential for that.

And I think there's a sense that now they're like government. Yeah. Like the anti-government people tend to also be anti-union, that there's that any sort of conglomerate of people is inherently unjust or inefficient or corrupt. Yeah. And that isn't to say that there isn't unjust, inefficient corruption within unions. Like big organizations tend to have people in power who can abuse those positions of authority and trust. For sure, there have been problems with unions and decisions made by unions which were not good decisions because people make them but by and large if we were to like if unions were to fucking evaporate tomorrow there is no reason for us to believe that many of those workplace protections

wouldn't immediately begin being chipped away at sure right some of them are laws but laws get reversed man yeah they're not, they're not amendments. It doesn't stay there forever. Right. And, you know, when I was a kid growing up, there were plenty of families that if they had a union job, that have a union job, that the dad might have a union job. Mom was a stay-at-home mom, and they were able to have a house.

Middle-class family. Middle-class family with one income from a union job. My dad was a truck driver when I was a house. Middle class family. Middle class family with one income from a union job. My dad was a truck driver when I was a kid. And he's the only one who worked. My mom stayed home. He was the breadwinner in the family. He wound up

going to work every day. He hurt himself on the job. One of the reasons, literally one of the reasons why he was able to stay employed as a truck driver for so long, even after he hurt himself and had to take days off and he got work coming comp is because there was a union. Without any of that, they would have just fired him. They would have been like, no, who cares? Go away. But because of that, and you know, like my dad had other problems, but

you know, I had a friend, another friend whose father was a truck driver too. They were a middle-class family. They lived in a nice house in a middle-class suburb growing up. And for his whole life, he was able to provide for his family with one single job. And that used to be an American reality. Yeah.

Yeah. And it's funny that you bring up trucking too, because just this last week or the week before, there a, uh, John Oliver, uh, what's the closest show called? Like this week tonight, last week tonight or something like that. So about trucks and trucking, and it was a fascinating show, but, but essentially almost all truckers now are non-unionized or independent contractors and they have been, their jobs have been ruined. The trucking industry, the truckers, the attrition rate's 300%. So for every one person that keeps the job in trucking, three people have to be hired because they treat these people so fucking awful.

So that is an example of what happens when jobs that have been traditionally protected and unionized and were good jobs, and you did have workplace protections, and you were able to make a living. Now, people are barely squeaking by, working their asses off, and being treated like absolute shit because that's the tendency in industry, right? Yeah, because they can get, if they can get away with it, they will. If every company could classify everybody as an independent contractor tomorrow, they would all do it. Because by doing that, they don't have to pay payroll taxes or benefits, unemployment, etc., etc., etc., etc. They don't have to pay for certain parts of your workday.

So the protections we all enjoy, whether we're in unions or not, often come from unions. So whether or not we like every union that's out there, whether or not we have access to join a union, depending on our work, we should be supportive of unions because the idea of unions and the workplace protections that they fought for, they help all of us, all of our ships rise. And I will say too, one of the reasons, one of the categories of people, of industry that deserves unions and should have unions are places where your body is in danger. Yes, fucking right.

Those are the ones that need it the most. Those are the ones that need those protections the most. So you're talking about this Amazon thing. Of course they should. These people are worked to death. They're worked so bad. And they even in the story, they go out of their way to say

very much like the trucker thing. Their plan is never to let people rise from the inside to management. As a high school graduate, you go there and get a job, a warehouse job, but you'll never get a management job. They would never even consider you that three, 400 people apply to one job

for the management inside and they probably hire a college graduate from the outside. They expect to lose their turnover, their entire place in like eight months. Yeah. They think every eight months, we need a new person in this position. And they've got no shortage of people to fill those roles.

And they don't care. And while they do pay better than some other places, they're willing, they're willing to work you and not give you any, any kind of, you know, there's no, there's no workplace protection. Right. And do you remember like when we were in college, when we were in college, like the employer that paid the most per hour, and I know you worked there was UPS. Yeah. So when we were in college, we saw all these flyers everywhere, UPS now hiring. And it was like, this, we saw all these flyers everywhere. UPS, now hiring. And it was like,

this is like the 90s, right? So like minimum wage in the 90s, when I was, it was like $4 and a quarter. $4 and a quarter, yeah. $4.75 at one point, I think. Got up to like $5.25, I think, for a bit, yeah.

And there were like, these flyers were like, UPS was paying like $12 an hour. Yeah. Which was insane. It's like three times the, nobody was making that. And they were paying that

because they knew you weren't going to work there very long. They're going to work the absolute dog shit out of you. They're going to crush you. You could treat you like you were a fucking actual machine until they run your fucking knees and back right into the ground. And they have a union. And they have a union, right?

So, you know, think about that. Think about just that in general. And then there's all these other companies that don't, right? So, you know, think about that. Think about just that in general. And then there's all these other companies that don't, right? And that's one, Amazon's a perfect example. Truck driver's a perfect example. People who use their bodies to do these things and their bodies wear down quickly and they don't have anything afterwards because they've only trained to do this thing. It's like, that's who needs it. And to shit on unions today, especially in this weird time that we're in where it feels like there is this push to find a work-life balance for everyone. Everyone deserves it. Not just the wealthy, not just the people in the desk jobs. Everybody

deserves a work-life balance. And there's something about, I think, the pandemic that tuned everybody up to this. And to lose that now, to pull away and lose that now, it would be a great tragedy. It would. Because I think the world needs a work-life balance.

Everybody needs a work-life balance. The fucking retail person that you go, that's a high school, that's a high school student student and they hate their job, but they should still have work-life balance. Yeah. And to be very clear, the push to get people back to work, the push to get people back to the office, the push, and that's very strong right now. I'm reading articles every single morning about this. It's because the longer

people experience a work-life balance, the less likely they will be to give it. We're at an inflection point. We are at a point where one of two things is very likely to happen. One, people will continue to demand some level of work-life balance, and then they will succeed in achieving that. And employers will have to say, okay, you know what? We do have to pay more. We do have to treat people like they're actual fucking human beings and not machines that

produce, or we will lose that fight. Yeah. And, and this go, and if we lose that fight, we will lose more than everything we've gained because the push on the other side is that's expensive. We don't want to do it. Yeah. They know they're going to lose money in it. They know they're going to lose money.

Absolutely. Yeah. So let's talk about this story. I'm going to call it back up here. Yep. This story comes from the Guardian. Wealthiest Americans pay just 3.4% of income in taxes, investigation reveals. This is something from a while ago. It is. Yeah. So the ProPublica came out with this a while back. Yep. So this is, and we've talked about this before, the wealthier you are, the more of your money comes to you, not in W-2 form, which is how regular Joes get paid, right? Yeah. But it comes to you in different layers of compensation, which such as taxes or not tax, such as stocks, which are taxed at wildly different rates and not different, less. They are taxed at lesser rates. And then the wealthiest Americans also offset their tax burden

by strategically offering charitable contributions. So that's an important piece, right? Because at first that sounds great. When you first read that, it's like, well, right, well, you pay less taxes, but you're giving away like a lot of your money, but they're not. What they're doing is they're giving away a strategic amount of money that moves them into a different bracket. And they understand that because they are able to deduct so many things line item wise off their taxes that if they can produce enough charitable contributions that they can give, say, I'm going to use figures that are not right.

They can give, say a hundred thousand dollars and save a million by moving from, let's say a 27% tax bracket to a 19% tax bracket. So it's a strategic contribution. It's not philanthropy. Yeah. That's not philanthropy. They're giving less than the amount that they're saving

because they're not just getting a tax break for what they give, but they're reducing their tax burden to push them in a different bracket. And that's something I hadn't thought about before. Sure, yeah. But it's an important strategic element of how the wealthy avoid paying into the kitty and fucking contributing to society. And that's the problem is that all the regular Joes that have a W-2, they get stuck paying taxes.

Everything. They pay taxes. And then if you, if you don't make enough money, you don't pay a lot of taxes. You get those credits back. You still have to pay the taxes, but then you wind up getting money back or credits or whatever. But if you don't, if you wind up in like the middle portion of society and that's, and I will be honest, that's not that much money to start owing money on taxes,

right? It's not that much money you have to pull. You're not a millionaire. You're not, you don't have to pull a lot of money home to start owing money on taxes. And then you just work your way up. You know, you could be right out of the poverty line and have to pay taxes.

Yep. Absolutely. So, you know, you, you can, you could be somebody who's in desperate poverty and it doesn't matter. And that goes all the way up So, you know, you, you can, you could be somebody who's in desperate poverty and it doesn't matter. And that goes all the way up to, you know, to sub millionaires or whatever,

you know, people that are rich, you know, quote unquote rich, but they still have to pay because they're getting paid that money through their work. But then the moment you get to this point where you don't have to do that, they start borrowing money to live on and they don't, they, they, they're able to write that off. And there's all these extra crazy, like loopholes that basically keep them paying so little in taxes while the rest of us have to carry their tax burden. And they're the ones who are living literally the greatest lives. Yeah. Well, and the thing is like that I didn't understand until I was reading up about this sort of stuff is that the ultra wealthy are not sitting on big bank accounts full of cash, right? What they're sitting on is assets, massive, massively

valued assets. Right. So they don't, I mean, it's not to say they don't have cash, right? But they have these massive assets that sit. And until the moment those assets are liquidated, those assets don't produce a taxable event. But because they have those enormous assets, they're a great collateral to leverage for lending. So then, to your point, then they borrow all this money. Well, that's borrowed money. That's not income. That's actually a liability. So then they get a tax break for the liability. But now they have all this money sitting in their account that they use to trickle pay back their loan with the money that they actually borrowed, which they'll just refinance in a handful of years off their assets, which continue to gain interest. And so they're not living a

liquid lifestyle in the same way that you and I are living a liquid lifestyle, yet they still have liquidity the same way that you and I think of liquidity, meaning they go to Starbucks, they're not worried about buying a latte. They don't get it for free. It doesn't get comped. They've got to buy it. So they've got cash to spend despite not having income the same way we think about income. But it's because they've been clever about gaming a system that literally they built. Yeah. And that rewards them in every turn. Right. And it's also punishing the most vulnerable. Well, and the government is fucking complicit in this. This

story comes from Bloomberg. Democrats ask the IRS why tax audits for the poor have doubled. berg democrats ask the irs why tax audits for the poor have doubled so it's not just that the tax audits for the poor have doubled though they have yeah it's that tax audits for the wealthy have halved yeah so we are auditing people because the reason they're doing this is frankly because it's fucking easy right so the irs is strain, like so many other organizations are under strain right now, and they have to produce a certain number of audits and auditing of taxes. That's like some dude with W-2s and that's it, is fairly straightforward. And auditing complex taxes of somebody who gets their income from 15 fucking revenue streams and their tax returns, you know, not even a thousand pages long, which one are you going to do? If I've got to do 15 fucking revenue streams and their tax returns, you know, not even a thousand pages long.

Which one are you going to do? If I've got to do 15 fucking audits this month, I'm going to do the 15 easy audits. Right. So poor people are getting fucked and wealthy people continue to slide under the radar to cheat on their taxes and then not to get caught.

The longer the audit, the longer the thing, it's like writing a paper that you know your professor won't read. Right. Yes. You know.

I'll turn in this paper. It's a 700-page paper. Well, you get an A because I ain't reading that. That looks like you put a lot of A for effort at the very least. They don't pay me enough for that.

Right? Yeah. Yeah. And that's what these people at IRS are thinking. They don't pay me enough for that. Right. They don't pay me.

We don't. They don't pay me enough to that. Right. They don't pay me. We don't. They don't pay me enough to go hunt down some rando, you know, millionaires 150 page tax return and try to line item that shit and pay attention to it when you're absolutely right. When a

1040EZ is fucking super easy to look at. Plus like because it's fucking turbo taxed it. Right. Precisely. They do that shit like over the it's fucking turbo taxed it. Right. Precisely. They do that shit like over the mail. They do that shit like fairly straightforward

and also like that rich guy as soon as the IRS calls like, I'll talk to my lawyer. Yeah. And then I've got to deal with the lawyer

and the CPAs and the red tape and they're going to, fuck, you know what? I'm just going to, I'm going to audit a bunch of people

with no fucking resources. Well, and then, and then they're doing, they're actually auditing the people that are really, really like they're, they're wind up. These people are like, like below the poverty line that they're auditing. Genuinely poor.

Yeah. Like, like these are people who just need to be left the fuck alone. Yeah. Like they need to be left the fuck. There's nothing to recoup. Yeah. There's no meaningful amount of money to recoup. It's also one of those things that it

feels like and even if it's not that's not the motivation it feels like that old welfare queen idea where you're like they'll go after the crumbs that someone may have you know and i'm not saying that any of these are fraudulent in any way so don don't get me wrong. But it has that feel of like, I want to find the fraudulent ones. And they'll go after anybody that they think might be fraudulent that is stealing like a crumb. Right. While, you know, other people are getting away with not paying any taxes at all. Or in fact, getting money back when they shouldn't be getting, you know what I mean? Absolutely.

Obscene amounts. And you're just like, okay, no, that's fucked up. Well, I don't remember what the number was, but I remember reading a story this year, as a matter of fact, where like the amount of money

that like tax, wealthy tax cheats owe the taxpayer, owe you, owe me, owe us. Yeah. I saw that this year too.

Yeah. Billions. Billions of dollars. Billions of dollars. That they consider unrecoupable. Right. Yeah. And it's, we're at a place. at a billions of dollars think of how many fucking like school the school lunch program right canceled right you could feed every kid in the nation if at school if you go after these fat cats and all we're doing is asking them to pay what they're supposed to pay

what they owe thing is like you and i pay what we're supposed to pay what i owe we're just fucking regular joes and like somebody and the thing is like if somebody calls you or i it's like you and I pay what we're supposed to pay. I have to pay what I owe. We're fucking regular Joes. And the thing is, if somebody calls you or I, and it's like, I'm the fucking IRS, we're going to die. I'm like, shit, all right. I'm not getting a lawyer. I don't have a team of fucking guys to, like you said, bomb them with so much paperwork that it gets held up for years and years.

Fucking shit. How long has fucking Trump been saying the same thing about, like, I'll release my tax returns when they're done being audited? Yeah. Well, it's been five years, motherfucker. He went in and out of the White House and still didn't have to do it. You and I, it's like, they call you on fucking March 3rd, it's fucking done by March 7th.

Yeah, it better be. Right? Better fucking be. It's if you took the weekend off. So we'd like to thank our patrons. Of course, we'd like to thank all our patrons, but we'd like to thank our newest patrons, Rachel, Abby, and the people who upped their pledges,

Robert, Devin, and Robin. Thank you so much for your generous donations. Your donations keep Glory Hole Studios going, keep pay in our employees pockets and keep food in our bellies on Thursday night so thank you so much

for your generous donations yeah thank you my belly says thank you yeah without it we wouldn't be able to order pizza on the show on Thursday night and we thank you

if you're thinking about being a patron you're not a patron just think about my belly just think about Tom's Tom's belly full of pizza right now mine too they're practically meeting our bellies Just think about Tom's belly full of pizza right now.

Mine too. They're practically meeting. Our bellies need you. So we got a bunch of messages we want to go through. We got a message. This is from Mark. And Mark told us about a bunch of different teams that are terrible, like sports teams.

I don't even know why you would like anything from St. Louis. But he also talks about at the bottom, Tom, something that you tried. The Starbucks downtown has a Knob Hill Cask Age Cold Brew. Worth your time if you like coffee and bourbon. They're available at Starbucks like reserve stores, which is like the fancy, fancy, fancy Starbucks. So there's one on like Michigan Avenue downtown, right? There is.

There's one actually in Naperville in the Western suburbs. Okay. And I think it was the only two in Illinois. And they have a totally different menu and they're very fucking snooty. But their bourbon barrel-aged cold brew is a goddamn revelation. It is painfully good.

You get a cup the size of a goddamn thimble. It costs like seven mortgage payments or something. And I don't even care. It's so good. It's right near where my, there happens to be one near where I get my hair cut. I see. So every four or five weeks,

I'll go get one of these. And it's just like jaw-droppingly delicious. Yeah, I'll have to go inside one of those places i've never been in we got a message from the king of games and he says there's a third option now we're talking a couple weeks ago about how our tastes might have changed when we were kids remember that twinkies might have tasted different or that you know certain foods tasted different when we were kids and he says there is a third option uh other than the two presented about twinkies.

It's possible that the memory was correct and the food didn't change, but rather you changed. Children have a strong preference for sugar and they don't like bitter things. Adults gain tolerance for bitter things and then they don't like overly sweet things. It's possible.

It's very possible. It is possible. Yeah, I'll tell you what. Did I like oily things as a kid though? I don't know if it was super sweet. Maybe I would. Like the texture on those is terrible. Like it's really bad,

but maybe I just didn't know any better. Right. Yeah. It's possible. Right. This is amazing. This is from Matt and he says, here's some names for fetus.

This is for an aborted fetus. Tad, Dot, Blob, my favorite, Unbiorn, which is fucking genius. Unbiorn is amazing. And then Hoover. That's good. Bravo, Matt. Thank you so much.

Very nicely done. We got a message. This is from Lisa and she links to an article. And the article is from Dr. Jen Gunters. I don't know if I'm pronouncing that correctly. It could be Gunters. I don't know if it's an Americanized name.

But in the article from the Vegendo, which is a fucking brilliant name for a blog. The title of the article is Your Medical Team Cannot Tell If You Self-Managed an Abortion What You Need to Know to Protect Yourself.

And this is, of course, referring to people who may get it wrong and think you got an abortion and then try to throw you in jail in some places where they're trying to criminalize it. So we're going to link to this article

in the show notes. Probably important information for lots of people who live in terrible, terrible places across the country. Got a message from Dave and Dave says, you know, when you think about autonomy and you think about abortion, you know, we've got to start thinking about it as guys, like, would you want to get a vasectomy? And, and, you know, if a vasectomy is a heart- A state-mandated vasectomy. Yeah, state-mandated, and then it's reversed if you want to have kids. The problem, I think, with the analogy, though, Dave,

is that nobody cares about fucking until it creates something. And so that's, I think, the real issue, is that nobody really says anything until it starts inside the woman. And that's when everybody starts freaking out. And I think the key to that is because it happens inside a woman. And that's when they, that's when everybody starts freaking out. And I think the key to that is because it happens

inside a woman, right? Like, like, like the, the power structure in all of society is nearly exclusively

male dominated. Like, yeah, like, are there a million better solutions? Sure. But like,

men are not going to, they're not going to do it. They're not going to take responsibility for something when the entire system is built intentionally to disenfranchise women. Yeah. Tom, you were telling me a story a few minutes ago about male birth control.

Yeah. So Haley and I were talking, and she read me a story the other day that male birth control clinical trials had to be halted because the men involved in the clinical trials were unwilling to deal with the side effects. the men involved in the clinical trials were unwilling to deal with the side effects. And it's funny because I had actually gotten into an argument with my wife and our nanny, and I was vociferously arguing. I was like, look, like men would absolutely want male birth control. I would have wanted male birth control as a young person. We absolutely would want to be a billion dollar product.

I think you're nuts to think that men wouldn't want this. And like, actually, there's clinical trials had to be halted because the men in the clinical trials were unwilling to put up with the side effects. The side effects for male birth control that they were unwilling to put up with were acne, mood changes, and increased libido. That's it. Yeah. One of them doesn't even seem like that bad. Right. Increased libido. You're taking fucking male birth control. That doesn't seem like it's that big of a downside. I got boners too much. In fact, there's many men who later on in life would kill for that.

Right. Yeah. So, and then you compare that to the side effects for female birth control, which include like blood clots, strokes, and dying. Yeah. But the thing is, is they don't have to, as a dude, you don't have to bother carrying the baby around. You don't have any skin in the game.

You know what I mean? That's exactly the point. You don't have any skin in the game. So, and I've actually thought about this a lot. Like on any topic in which you have no skin in the game, your job is to shut the fuck up and listen to the people that do. And that's why men need to shut the fuck up and listen to the people that do.

And that's why men need to shut the fuck up and listen to women about abortion. We got a message, and this is from Sierra. And Sierra sends a message from Reddit. She says that she's a mod for an abortion group on Reddit called Our Abortion.

And it's a support group for people who have had abortions or are thinking about getting abortions. You can check it out on Reddit at Our Abortions. And that's a great, by the way, Our Abortions. I mean, come on, Our Abortions is pretty great. But she sends a list of a ton of different resources. And these are for donating to help people get abortions, trying to educate people on abortions and all types of other types of links. We're going to post all these on this

week's show notes. So you can check out all the links that she provides. It includes a pro-choice hotline. There's places to get abortion pills when you don't have a clinic. Groups that help people pay for abortion. So there's a lot of abortion resources here. You can check it out on this week's show notes. 625, tons of stuff in there if you want to take a look at it. Thank you, Zero. Thank you. This is a great list of resources. And if you're thinking about it or if you need some support, I looked at this subreddit. This is a small community subreddit. This isn't one of those big, dopey subreddits full of

a million trolls and a million people and none of the comments matter and you comment and 60 different people say nice underneath or whatever. You know what I mean? It's not that garbage. This is a small 25k, I think, something like that. Small subreddit with people that are low upvoted posts

with plenty of people having conversations. So if this might be a good place to start conversations about this type of stuff. That's great. Got a message. This is from Brandon and Brandon sends this in. And someone has found our, our old address.

So when we first, this is years ago now I looked it up actually. And this was five years ago, five years ago, almost to the day we got glory hole studios outside of your house. About five years ago to the day. And it was at, it was at three 45 North Loomis, which was the music garage downtown. We got it in the music garage. We were there for about four

months. It smelled like pot. It was loud. It was terrible place to do this. We thought it might be good. It was pretty terrible. We wound up finding a better place afterwards. And the second glory hole studios was better, but the first glory hole studios was at Loomis. Well, we, when we put our address in, um, people now, now there's like a Google place called glory hole studios in Chicago, literally gorgon, glory hole studios in Chicago. And you can find it online. Well, people found it and it's listed. I listed it cause I was listed. I listed as a place of worship. And, uh, and evidently people, uh, I love it. It's got reviews. Yeah. People, people have reviewed it on Google and evidently, uh, it it. It's got reviews. Yeah, people have reviewed it on Google

and evidently it was making the rounds this last week. It's sort of like virally. That's great. But of course, nobody knows that it's associated with us. So that's going to wrap it up for this week. We had a fun stream this week.

We did. We wound up rating. We did a tier list for fries on the fly and we also watched a crazy video about Cobra Kai DNA so you should check it out the video's nuts we had a lot of fun

the stream of course is a lot of fun and very different from the show but you can also watch this version of the show online maybe the previous hour or so that you just listened to on your podcast you could actually go watch that. We're trying to produce these whenever we can

when we don't have guests and things. So you can watch the entire video in its entirety. So go check it out on YouTube. We're trying to, and while you're there, be sure to like and subscribe. We're trying to make sure that, you know, like we have such a pathetic number of subscribers. We want to try to hit at least 10K.

So, and we're close, you know, but it'll only take a couple hundred of you to go over there and do this. Right. And it's a pathetic number of subscribers. We just need you to go over and do it. Just head over. Just go over and do it.

Stop listening to me right now. Head over. Go over there and do the thing. And just subscribe to the channel and just subscribe to our YouTube channel. Even if you don't ever watch YouTube, I just want to do it to be nice. It's like an arbitrary number,

but it's been pathetically like the underneath 10K forever. And that's a small amount of people that listen to the show. So go check it out if you can. It would be nice to us.

It would be nice. Thank you. We appreciate it. All right. That's going to wrap it up for this week. We're going to leave it like we always do

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